Directive 2002/49/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (“the Directive”) relates to the assessment and management of environmental noise.

Article 6 of the Directive provided that Member States may use assessment methods laid down in their own legislation, adapted in accordance with Annex II of the Directive, for the determination of certain noise indicators until common assessment methods for those indicators are established and adopted by the European Commission through a revision of Annex II of the Directive. The Environmental Noise Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006 No.387) (“the 2006 Regulations”) implement the Directive.

The European Union Commission Directive 2015/996/EC (“the 2015 Directive”) established common noise assessment methods and replaced Annex II of the Directive with the Annex of the 2015 Directive.

These Regulations, which apply to Northern Ireland and which come into operation on 31st December 2018, implement the 2015 Directive and apply the common noise assessment methods in the Annex of the 2015 Directive, as amended from time to time, in place of the methods previously referred to in regulation 4 of the 2006 Regulations. These Regulations also make consequential amendments to regulations 2, 4 and Schedules 2 and 3 of the 2006 Regulations and update references to Departments’ names following the transfers of functions of Northern Ireland government departments in 2016.